


Black Rose

by Lady_Amarant



Series: O You Sinners [3]
Category: Slayers (Anime & Manga)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-12
Updated: 2014-08-12
Packaged: 2018-02-12 20:00:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2122797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Amarant/pseuds/Lady_Amarant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Xellos reveals a little more of what the proposal means as Zelgadis battles with new instincts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Black Rose

There were bandits up ahead.

They were well up the road, well out of sight. How he had known that... Zelgadis paced along the side of the road, his feet moving restlessly as hunger spiked through him. Greed pressed in around him, questioning, the dark need reaching out for it in an attempt for anything. He pressed his lips together, mentally stomping down on it as he tried to wrestle control over it. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to go meet the bandits head on. Take a lesson from Lina, and strip them of any valuables they had taken from others. He’d be set for a while longer, at least. But the thought rippled pleasure through him, the idea of pain spiraling around him as they begged for a mercy not even Amelia would afford them... Zelgadis swallowed, his hands clenching harder.

A presence moved into place behind him, then a soft, irritatingly familiar laugh. “I never thought I’d see you indecisive about following your cure!”

He didn’t even have to think as he turned, his fist passing through the space where Xellos used to be. The echo of him wrapped around his arm as the Mazoku tsked from his new tree perch. “That wasn’t nice, Zelgadis-san. And to think I’m here to collect your answer for our proposal! It would make a person think you didn’t appreciate the idea of being able to have knowledge at your fingertips whenever you wanted it.”

”At a price,” Zelgadis growled. “What did you do, Xellos?”

”Oh?” Xellos’s smile fell into amused puzzlement, his eyebrows lifting. “Did something happen?”

”Don’t play dumb!” Zelgadis stepped closer, shaking in rage and the feeling of others’ greed and aggression rolling against him. “You did something when you made me that offer.”

A noise of remembrance came from above. “Oh, that? Just a little taste! Looked like you liked it, hm?”

There weren’t enough words to describe his anger. Zelgadis pulled his hand back, letting a Fireball gather before tossing it up, right into Xellos’s face. It hit the Mazoku, and exploded with force he hadn’t even seen from Lina’s attempts. His arm covered his face reflexively, shielding his eyes from the heat as the spell died away. He could feel Xellos coming to rest beside him before hearing his feet hit the ground, and he turned before a single word could be uttered. “What. Did you. Do?” Zelgadis growled, his hands shaking slightly.

Xellos laughed, a hand coming up behind his head. “I wish I could take credit for this, Zelgadis-san! But that was all you.” His hand came up, and the spark within him screamed to grab the power crackling along Xellos’s skin as he traced the pebbles along Zelgadis’s cheek. “Oh, I did help it along a little bit, but I certainly didn’t _do_ anything to you that wasn’t already there.”

That was it. Zelgadis grabbed Xellos’s shirt, shoving him against a tree. “Don’t you pretend you can’t take responsibility, don’t-” A new wave of emotion batted against him, making him stumble into the Mazoku. Fear. Fear, anticipation, worry... there were several of them. A family. Zelgadis could feel a moan building, and Xellos slipping from his grasp. Recklessly, he shoved his body against the other’s, willing him to stay, throwing whatever he could, from his body to that spark that desired the demon, to stay, to _submit_ -

Xellos’s eyes snapped open in shock, his lips parting as he remained pinned between stone and wood. “It can’t be...”

”Take responsibility,” he breathed, his hands shaking as the fear mounted. “What did you do to me?”

”So that’s the power you were hiding.” Xellos placed a hand on his wrist as he murmured the words. “What you are when you aren’t starving yourself.” He looked at the chimera with wonder, with submission. "Tell me, what is it you need?"

"What?" Those words, they made no sense. Nothing Xellos said made sense. Zelgadis pressed harder against him as the hunger within lapped happily at the mounting fear rising around them. "What do you-"

There was a sound of understanding from Xellos as one eye closed again. "You're not quite accepting it. Well then! How does it taste, Zelgadis-sama?"

The change of honorifics made him pause, confused. "How does what-"

Pain. Sharp, bright, strong, and not his. Distantly, he could hear Xellos giggle as it ripped through his brain, a soft moan spilling from his lips interrupting his words. “You weren’t indecisive, were you?” he heard dimly, a pressure moving over his arms. “You could feel them too. The dark emotions, and now... oh, I’ve never seen a first time before.” Fingers brushed his chin and he followed them, mouth seeking the spark that distantly echoed the fire burning in him. “It feels good, doesn’t it?”

”Xellos...” Zelgadis managed to glare at him, feeling the fear mount around him, and pain roll sensuously between the waves. His eyes clenched shut as he rested his head next to Xellos, almost careless of how he could his hair stuck in the wood. “Oh L-sama...”

A hand reached between his legs, stroking upward in a sure motion. “Or is this how your human blood interpretes it?” Zelgadis slit his eyes open, lifting his head up to see the familiar irritating grin on Xellos’s face. The hand cupped him firmly, rubbing him as the fear and pain and greed started to seep into his skin, filling him from the outside in a glorious shudder. His hands loosened, then fell, breath stirring purple hair as Xellos slid his hand into his pants. He couldn’t- think- there was something wrong with-

”Just enjoy it,” came a voice at his ear. “And let it feed.”

The hunger lashed out, and for the first time he realized in a _prison_. It could eat, but never to satiety. He had to push it back down, it wasn’t- he couldn’t- but the pleasure started to take over everything, started to- Zelgadis groaned, digging his fingers into the tree as he felt the pain turn into shock, and despair. It filled him as surely as the pleasure, making him shudder, making him-

His mind whited out as everything met, buzzing through him, filling him, over him. Nothing existed for a while as everything fell into place, the ravenous, _monstrous_ hunger quieted, and finally faded to a happy rumble. Zelgadis opened his eyes slowly, just now realizing he had closed them, just now realizing there was nothing holding Xellos down. No reason to keep Xellos between him and the tree.

”I must thank you for letting me see this,” Xellos told him cheerfully from behind him. “But after that particular show, I would recommend making a choice soon. It might seem you will be getting more offers, and I doubt you would get such generous terms as the ones my master is giving.”

”What do you-” Words came slowly, floating on top of pleasure and fullness as he looked over his shoulder. “What do you mean?”

One eye opened as his finger came up, almost ready to hold the answer a secret as usual. Then Xellos said cheerfully, “Why, for the awakening of Shabranigdu’s blood within you, of course!”

Cold ran through the pleasure suffusing him as Xellos disappeared. The blood of... the Dark Lord... of the one that had been sealed within his great-grandfather’s eyes. No. That couldn’t be. That couldn’t be why-

”You’re lying,” Zelgadis whispered to the astral echo around him, his hands curling to fists on the tree. “You... you Mazoku, you’re lying. You’re _lying._

**Author's Note:**

> _Pray, baby, pray  
>  Over our sins _
> 
> -Eliza Rickman, "Black Rose," _O, You Sinners_


End file.
